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Opinion | Why Trump will win another four years as US president: voters want him to finish what he started
- Voters in 2016 liked Trump’s promise to stem the tide of illegal immigration, tackle trade with China and defeat Islamic State – and they still do
- Unless Democrats can put up a credible candidate willing to deliver a similar agenda, they will lose
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Criticism of American presidents by their opponents and the press is a job requirement, but US President Donald Trump has inspired new extremes. Calling him a fascist seems especially popular, though racist, anti-Semite and misogynist aren’t far behind.
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Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton extended the criticism to his supporters in 2016 when she said, “You know, to just be grossly generalistic [sic], you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables”. Google “Trump supporter MAGA hat” and you’ll find plenty of stories of Trump supporters being attacked in the past few years.
Trump may be all the bad things he’s called and some of his supporters may be deplorable, yet millions of educated, rational, moderate Americans voted for him in 2016. And the way things are going, they’re likely to do it again in November. Why?
Many Trump voters like one or more of his policies, even if they don’t like the man. In ordinary times, his unlikeable persona might be enough to keep people at home on voting day, but these aren’t ordinary times. Trump’s opponents – a shambolic menagerie of socialists, terrorism apologists, liars, Nancy Pelosi (who prays for him, God bless her) and otherwise likeable Democrats – have attacked him so harshly and assiduously that they provide plenty of motivation to vote against them once more.
The reward for this, above four more years of Trump’s policies if he wins, includes the sheer entertainment of watching his opponents writhe on the floor, ululating, looking for somebody to blame – again. OK, they don’t really writhe on the floor. They sit in chairs around glass tables in television studios and ululate in political discussions.
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